Indy's debut

Little Indy made her big debut in agility this weekend. i entered her in just, the jumpers with weaves class for 2 days to see how she would do, and handle the trial environment. Over all I'm very pleased with her. She did great. Day two though, complete and utter silliness, initiated by my very own disastrous handling. Yes, there is video of that run too, it may surface one day as a blooper video.

vaccines and stuff

Okay, so due to my own fear a couple of the pups are now over due for their rabies vaccines. I do titers for distemper and parvo, but usually do rabies pretty much as required by the state. Indy was due back in Feb and Abby in March. I always worry, but after Indy's reaction as a 12 week old baby; puffed up like a balloon, acting skittish and strange for well over a week....I'm terrified.

Kittie badly needs a dental too, which is frustrating because, she just had a dental!!! I took her in, told them her teeth are bad, they peek in her mouth agree that a dental is in order. I pick her up later that day, they couldn't remove several bad teeth, that had broken off because she was only under light sedation, what?? did they not take a really good look at what was going on before deciding on the level of sedation?

I'll never understand my dog's teeth. Abby has the most gleaming, perfect teeth you've ever seen.....but she's had to have several removed because of slab fractures. Willy's teeth...nasty, nasty, nasty. He gets a dental and literally within 2 months they look just as bad as before. Rudy, the old lady of the family actually has pretty good teeth, from what anyone can actually see, she's not exactly cooperative. Kittie's teeth are a mess. a mixture of broken and just plain yuck. Indy's are looking the same as the day she came here, perfect! they all eat raw, spend a good deal of time chewing and get their teeth brushed.

Deer Lakes park

We went for a hike at Deer lakes park this weekend, (and yes, we did see deer!). the weather continues to be strangely perfect and spring/summer like. I've been to this park a few times and usually we wander around for hours searching for the good trails, only to find them after we're all about done for the day. Yesterday we actually found a nice 2.5 mile loop right away. It was perfect, some small streams, windy, hilly trails that opened up into big fields.

Tinkle induced melt-down

So, Indy's a freak. Aren't all dogs in some way?

Last year Indy went through a stage where she didn't want to go in the back yard. Grass in the park was fine, even soaking wet grass, but not the yard. she also didn't like going in the grass at agility trials, at least the grass closest to the buildings. I had my suspiscions, that this was related to other dogs pee being on the grass, but never was sure and it went away out of no where last Fall.

Until yesterday that is, I went to a friends to help her get started training her young dogs' running contacts. she has a teeter from mad agility, so I brought Indy along to let her play on the teeter, it's the same kind a lot of trials here use and no where we train has one. She was okay on the patio, but paniced the second she went on the grass. no interest in her favorite ball, wouldn't take food and within a few minutes started drooling like crazy, totally stressed! Put her in her crate for a while, she came out happy as can be, played on the patio area, chased her ball.....then I threw it on the grass, panic, drooling melt down. Yep, 5 dogs peeing in one yard is too much pee for Indy. She's so funny, I guess cleanliness isn't a horrible trait, and this shouldn't be an issue in the ring at a trial, other than the hike I have to go to get her to pee. Maybe she needs booties, so her delicate paws don't have to touch any tinkle......

Way to Go Bogie the pug!

This was the first year that preferred dogs were eligible to compete at agility nationals, I wasn't sure what to make of this.....but what the heck, why not!! I think they were expecting a much larger turn out and the number of dogs representing each height was decided on *before* entry numbers were in, a whopping 78% of preferred dogs at the national made it to finals.

The big news though, a pug ended up 2nd place in the preferred 8" division. Way to go, Kris Huet and Bogie. I'm not familiar with them, so I don't know where they're from or how long they've been competing. I got the livestream, so I saw two of their runs, he's a nice running pug! Kris looked to be calm and smooth in finals too. A great representation of what pugs can do!

Spring Hike

Wow, the first day of Spring and it was actually a perfect spring day here. Warm (not hot), sunny and it's been so nice lately that the trails are unusually dry! Everyone was happy to finally get out on a real hike, the water dogs even go their first chance to take a dip......and Indy has turned into a water dog too. Last summer she wasn't so sure about this wet stuff, but now she's the first one in.

If I could change just one thing

I love my dogs, I love their enthusiasm.....but could they just keep it down a little? they're not bad at home, but on the way to the park Kittie & Rudy are just deafening. really guys, can you cool it just a little? Maybe just once in a while, we don't have to announce our arrival to the whole park......